A one-minute video shows a bird with skill that equals or surpasses that of Michael Jackson when Jackson was in his prime.

Kees Moeliker, our European Bureau Chief who is also curator of birds at the Natural History Museum Rotterdam, says:

It is the Red-capped manakin (Pipra mentalis) which occurs in humid forests from SE Mexico, south to E Panama, NW Colombia and NW Ecuador. Stiles & Skutch (1989) in A Guide to the Birds of Costa Rica, describe this behaviour of the male as “backwards slides with legs stretched up and yellow thighs exposed.”

(Thanks to investigator Mark Dionne for bringing this to our attention.)

Posted by Marc Abrahams on
Monday, September 25th, 2006 at 12:01 am
under Arts and science.